Sox bring back Wakefield, Tavarez and Farrell for 2008

Theo Epstein announced yesterday that the Red Sox were picking up the options on Tim Wakefield and Julian Tavarez. Looks like they’ll be relying on some combination of Wakefield, Tavarez, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz to cover two rotation spots for 2008.

Wakefield for $4M is a no-brainer, but I’m surprised that they chose to keep Tavarez around for $3.85M. Maybe they’re thinking of Tavarez as a swingman? He was a trooper for us last season, I’ll admit, and had a few good starts in there, but he was just 6-11 with a 5.22 ERA as a starter. I’d rather sign someone else or take my chances with Kyle Snyder, who is almost as good, younger and a lot cheaper. But this announcement probably means they’re going to non-tender Snyder, who was the other long man in the bullpen.

There is a good chance that both of these guys could end up in the bullpen next season, and that’s a lot of cash to have invested there. Then again, Boston is not under the same payroll restrictions as some other teams.

Pitching coach John Farrell also announced that he is turning down the Pirates’ mangerial position and sticking with the Sox for 2008. That’s great news for us, because Farrell is a great baseball mind to have on our side.